This is a photo set for my first critique in Geoff Winningham’s photo seminar. For higher quality versions, click here.

During the early seventies Robert Irwin was proffered an honorary doctorate by the San Francisco Art Institute. The school’s graduation ceremony that year took place in an outdoor courtyard on a sunny, breezy afternoon, sparkling clear. Irwin approached the podium, and began, “I wasn’t going to accept this degree, except it occurred to me that unless I did I wasn’t going to be able to say that.” He paused, waiting as the mild laughter eddied. “All I want to say,” he continued, “is that the wonder is still there.” Whereupon, he simply walked away.
— from Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees by Lawrence Weschler

They said, “You have a blue guitar,
You do not play things as they are.”
The man replied, “Things as they are
Are changed upon the blue guitar.”
And they said then, “But play, you must,
A tune beyond us, yet ourselves,
A tune upon the blue guitar
Of things exactly as they are.”
— Wallace Stevens

“Then again, perhaps he’s just toying with us all. There’s an urban legend that’s gone round until no one is sure who it happened to, or if it happened at all. It was late one night, a few years ago, when a young man was walking through Union Square Park. He suddenly felt someone behind him, their hands over his eyes. When he turned in surprise, there was Bill Murray, his creased face leaning in close. Bill whispered, “No one is ever going to believe you,” and then just walked away.” – nypost